Etihad Airways Partners is a unique and exciting new development. Participating airlines – Alitalia, Jet Airways, airberlin, NIKI, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles and Etihad Regional – have joined together to give more choice.

21 Sep 2015 17:00

The chief executive officers of six airlines in the Etihad Airways Partners group are meeting in Rome today to identify and progress collaborative initiatives designed to cut the carriers’ costs, increase their revenues, and expand sustainable choice for their customers.

The
partnership summit is being chaired by James Hogan, President and Chief
Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, and brings together the leaders of
Alitalia, the airberlin Group, Jet Airways, Air Serbia, Air Seychelles and
Etihad Regional, and the chief officers of Etihad Airways and Alitalia.

Etihad
Airways holds minority stakes in Alitalia (49 per cent), airberlin (29.2 per
cent), Jet Airways (24 per cent), Air Serbia (49 per cent), Air Seychelles (40
per cent) and Darwin Airline, which trades as Etihad Regional (33.3 per cent).

Today’s
meeting follows the conclusion last week of an innovative collective financing
agreement, through which US$700 million was raised on the international markets
for use by Etihad Airways, Etihad Airport Services, airberlin, Alitalia, Jet Airways,
Air Serbia and Air Seychelles.

“The
airline industry is global, not local,” Mr Hogan said. “Individually, we are
small participants in the global market. But collectively, our partnership
serves 330 destinations, flies almost 700 aircraft and carries over 100 million
passengers each year, making us the world’s seventh largest grouping of
airlines. We leverage the buying power, resources, relationships and influence
of our participating airlines to achieve the most cost-effective and
customer-friendly outcomes.”

Members
of Etihad Airways Partners also work together to reduce costs and improve
efficiency and customer choice through measures which otherwise would only be
available through mergers or takeovers.

In
addition to codesharing and joint commercial activities, the members of Etihad
Airways Partners collaborate through resource sharing, adoption of best
practice, and joint procurement of assets, services and supplies.

They
also develop relationships between each other, or facilitate deals with
external airline partners or suppliers.

Beyond
last week’s joint financing agreement, the airlines also collaborate on the
sourcing of IT platforms, aircraft and insurance, and share resources including
pilot and cabin crew training.

A
number of airlines in the group have sourced additional aircraft from each
other or redeployed excess fleet to each other.

Employees
have been transferred between airlines, enabling members of Etihad Airways
Partners to recruit skills or provide fresh employment opportunities within the
group.

Service
and product of the partner airlines, in the air and on the ground, is
increasingly being aligned as part of a strategy to offer customers a seamless,
high quality product across Etihad Airways Partners.

Loyalty
programs are also interconnected between the airlines of Etihad Airways
Partners.

Etihad
Airways Group has established the Global Loyalty Company, which owns the Etihad
Guest program and majority stakes in airberlin’s topbonus, Alitalia’s
MilleMiglia and the Jet Privilege program of Jet Airways.

Air
Serbia, Air Seychelles and Etihad Regional have all adopted the Etihad Guest
program, while NIKI uses topbonus.

Alitalia and
airberlin are also introducing the same Business Class service and product as
Etihad Airways, initially on long haul aircraft, and many more opportunities
for collaboration are being explored by all of the Etihad Airways Partners
airlines for both passenger and air cargo services.